Re: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> I actually think that it is more likely that Marcus becomes the primary backup during december through March, but DA takes over the role in April and the playoffs. And that's the way it should be. Marcus will get a chance to develop, but isn't ready to be trusted in the big game situations. I wouldn't be surprised if Frank told DA that he would get a chance to contribute in the playoffs.</p> </div></p> That would probably work best for this team. But, unless some freak thing happens, we all know Frank will most likely favor DA. Not completely a bad thing, but it might tire DA and Marcus wouldn't develop.</p> </p>
Re: You bring up some good points reganomics, and I think the fallout from playing Marcus at the 2 extends past hindering his own development. If we go with a bench of DA and Marcus, we're looking at either Antoine or Boki's playing time get diminished. There's a couple of different ways to go with this.</p> -With the back court filled, Antoine plays the 3 for defensive purposes. Not too shabby, and we can even bring on Boki at the 4 if we want to play up-tempo while maintaining a balance of offense and defense (at least at the 1 and 3)</p> -Boki plays his nautral 3, Marcus the two, and DA at point guard. Antoine doesn't get playing time and his already fragile confidence drops off. One step closer to bust city. Sad face.</p> -Same as above, except Antoine gets time at the two. Marcus also loses confidence and goes back to sitting on the bench with a grumpy face on. This is negative reinforcement for the hard work he put in over the summer to lose weight, and is compounded by disappointment he has by being injured to start the season. His development as a true PG replacement declines. Worse yet, expect GMJigga to make continual crackpot on-the-fly psychological analysis throughout the year.</p> I guess the way I see it, I've given up on BRob or Hite getting playing time. It looks like Marcus or Antoine is going to have a chance to flourish, but not both. Oh and god help them if Houston makes the team. That knocks both of them down the depth chart back.</p>
Re: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GMJigga)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> You bring up some good points reganomics, and I think the fallout from playing Marcus at the 2 extends past hindering his own development. If we go with a bench of DA and Marcus, we're looking at either Antoine or Boki's playing time get diminished. There's a couple of different ways to go with this.</p> -With the back court filled, Antoine plays the 3 for defensive purposes. Not too shabby, and we can even bring on Boki at the 4 if we want to play up-tempo while maintaining a balance of offense and defense (at least at the 1 and 3)</p> -Boki plays his nautral 3, Marcus the two, and DA at point guard. Antoine doesn't get playing time and his already fragile confidence drops off. One step closer to bust city. Sad face.</p> -Same as above, except Antoine gets time at the two. Marcus also loses confidence and goes back to sitting on the bench with a grumpy face on. This is negative reinforcement for the hard work he put in over the summer to lose weight, and is compounded by disappointment he has by being injured to start the season. His development as a true PG replacement declines. Worse yet, expect GMJigga to make continual crackpot on-the-fly psychological analysis throughout the year.</p> I guess the way I see it, I've given up on BRob or Hite getting playing time. It looks like Marcus or Antoine is going to have a chance to flourish, but not both. Oh and god help them if Houston makes the team. That knocks both of them down the depth chart back.</p> </div></p> </p> More likely than not, Hite won't even make the team. I'd give Jumaine the highest probability of making it, followed by Malik, and Benson.</p>
Re: Adding Armstong, we have IMO a great group of bench players that has a nice mix of young and old but the problem is that the young kids still have enough question marks that they can be leapfrogged by our new acquisitions seeing as Frank leans toward playing more experienced players in crucial situations. Looking around the league it seems this season will be just as tough if not tougher than last season and there's gonna be plenty of nights where we'll be in for downright fights to keep leads or fight back into games so all I really hope is that Frank will figure out a way to manage the roster evenly for our younger guys as they need the experience outside of the practice floor because Marcus, Wright, and Boone are all intergal pieces to this team success outside of our stars and are the thing. I have no problem if Malik, Darrell, and possibly Houston in at the end of games if we need them to be but I just don't want to see guys like Boone, Wright, and Marcus becoming 3rd stringers in essence in tough games. I mean there's a time and a place for everything and matchups have to be taken into account as well but if we bury our youth again we'll pay for it come playoff time no matter how good our stars are playing.</p>
Re: I think if Williams plays the way he played at UConn, Frank will not sit him. I think Armstrong will become a situational PG, will play more when we have a smaller quicker point to defend, Ford, Telfair.....yea drawing a blank. But the thing is, if Williams show us what he has done all summer, then Frank will have no problem playing him and using Armstrong in situations. All this does, is gives us the confidence and be disciplined in just sitting Kidd for his allotted blow. What 6-7 minutes a half? Nellie is talkng about limiting Davis' minutes to 28 a night.......yea pipe dream over there.</p>
Re: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Players get hurt.</p> </div></p> </p> They already are. That's what sparked the conversation in the first place. Hopefully there's no more major ones and the rest are minor and early in the season. Knock on wood. The best way to avoid them though is good player management and not overextending them, thankfully we now we actually have a team full of guys capable of helping make that happen and hopefully it will. I'm very very happy we got DA and his contributions will be very important, especially against smaller guards and is just another capable guy to throw at Dwyane Wade as Flash is the Future pointed out in another thread.</p>
Re: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GMJigga)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> You bring up some good points reganomics, and I think the fallout from playing Marcus at the 2 extends past hindering his own development. If we go with a bench of DA and Marcus, we're looking at either Antoine or Boki's playing time get diminished. There's a couple of different ways to go with this.</p> -With the back court filled, Antoine plays the 3 for defensive purposes. Not too shabby, and we can even bring on Boki at the 4 if we want to play up-tempo while maintaining a balance of offense and defense (at least at the 1 and 3)</p> -Boki plays his nautral 3, Marcus the two, and DA at point guard. Antoine doesn't get playing time and his already fragile confidence drops off. One step closer to bust city. Sad face.</p> -Same as above, except Antoine gets time at the two. Marcus also loses confidence and goes back to sitting on the bench with a grumpy face on. This is negative reinforcement for the hard work he put in over the summer to lose weight, and is compounded by disappointment he has by being injured to start the season. His development as a true PG replacement declines. Worse yet, expect GMJigga to make continual crackpot on-the-fly psychological analysis throughout the year.</p> I guess the way I see it, I've given up on BRob or Hite getting playing time. It looks like Marcus or Antoine is going to have a chance to flourish, but not both. Oh and god help them if Houston makes the team. That knocks both of them down the depth chart back.</p> </div></p> I'd think he takes time from Kidd and Marcus, which are both good things. If Marcus can't respond well to a little adversity and/or a challenge, so what? He hasn't earned anything. Being in shape is where you start from as a young player, it's not an end goal.</p> </p>
Re: While initally disappointed, It'll be hard for me to look logically and not be too displeased if Malik gets on the team over Benson. We're nearing the end of this journey in the next couple of years and we've got the do everything we can to win a championship soon. That being said I wouldn't want Marcus, Antoine or Boone to be sitting on the bench at the end of close games. It'll be important for their development to be pushed to take the next step. Especially after last year, taking a step backwards shouldn't be an option. Confidence is such an issue for our rookies, that I fear that relying too much on these old foggies could cripple them.</p>
Re: It would be great to have guys like Armstrong and Houston in the backcourt, with younger guys like Boki, Wright, Marcus, Boone and Sean on the bench, that's a solid bench there.</p>
Re: The pessimist says - DA is going to take all of Marcus' minutes, and he'll never get a chance to develop.</p> The optimist says - For the first time ever, if Frank doesn't like the way his backup PG is playing, he can switch it up without putting Kidd back in the game. It's a realistic possiblity that Kidd could get down to 32-34 mpg, which we've all been clamoring for since the dawn of time (2001).</p>
Re: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ly_yng)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> The pessimist says - DA is going to take all of Marcus' minutes, and he'll never get a chance to develop.</p> The optimist says - For the first time ever, if Frank doesn't like the way his backup PG is playing, he can switch it up without putting Kidd back in the game. It's a realistic possiblity that Kidd could get down to 32-34 mpg, which we've all been clamoring for since the dawn of time (2001).</p> </div></p> </p> Wow, great point there. We actually have 2 servicable backups in DA and Marcus (once he comes back). Add those 2 to Vince, and our pg situation looks pretty damn good.</p> I'm sort of wondering how DA will do with the backups, tho. It seemed like last year, Marcus really clicked with Boone, Hassan, Wright, and even Moore. It might take some time for DA to get used to the team, but to think realistically, there's a slight possibility he might not exactly do good with this team.</p>
Re: Well I don't know how much playing time DA and Marcus will get together. Regardless if we get Houston, we've got enough SG that I don't think we'll see Marcus playing that much two (although its a very viable option).</p> I think Marcus clicked with those guys based on their youth. Their play seemed to be more up-tempo 'streetball-esque' play that I wouldn't see with more fundamentally-oriented veterans. Plus Marcus and Boone already had chemistry, and I would think that they could relate more easily with him than guys who were rookies when they were around 10 years old</p>
Re: Marcus should not have hurt himself, that's a bad move. If he is healthy, we would be so happy, but he has done that, sorry, we have to bring another older PG.</p>
